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Monday, February 27, 2017

Nobody wants to eat simple beetroot. Even I used to hate
that potato and beetroot curry in my childhood. So to make us eat the beetroot,
my “masi” invented this recipe, “beet bata”. "Bata" in Bengali cuisine refers to those category of recipes which are fried until the main ingredient becomes completely mushy. These recipes are generally very spicy and tends to have a pungent smell of the garlic. But here the strong garlic flavour overpowers the typical odd flavour of the beetroots and the addition
of sugar gives it a nice taste, which is neither too sweet nor just salty.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

This recipe of chicken curry from the southern coastal part of India is popular for its spice quotient. Cooked with only minimum spices
and grated fresh coriander, the masala paste is all what takes for a lip
smacking curry like this. Just have some patience for about half an hour and it
will pay off with a red hued curry with soft and succulent chicken pieces and
lovely oil floating on top. Now that I call..yummm...!!

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Shukto, the medley of summer
vegetables in a bitter-sweet curry is one of those recipes that never age. Shukto
is considered as a starter in Bengali cuisine and it is eaten only during
lunch. As a child I used to freaking hate Shukto (along with “teto dal” i.e.
lentils with bitter gourd) because of its bitterness and I insisted ma to give
me only potatoes. But now the adult me knows all the benefits of all those
vegetables and the very necessary bitter factor makes the “shukto” stand out on
its own, and there is hardly any other recipe that will match the popularity
and respect that “shukto” claims over people. If you haven’t tasted “shukto”
yet, you probably have missed a great deal of our cuisine, because we are not
just “rosogolla”, "kosha mangsho" and “mishit doi”, trust me we make some crazy veggie delights
as well.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Faced with two full
bottles of orange juice just one day before leaving, the only choice I thought
of was using that delicious orange juice in making orange chicken. I had heard
really good stuffs about this orange hued Chinese chicken preparation and now
was the time to make it. I wanted to make it so many times before but somehow it
got always pushed away and the recipe could not materialize before. But now, I
had the time as well as the ingredients...and there were two hungry adult people
in my house, so no worry about leftovers too!!!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Every year when we pack
our things for our annual holiday I look like an eager hostel kid going home,
happy to leave her place of torment for a long retiring month. We pack our
bags, buy gifts for our siblings ,I make lists of all the things that we have
to bring (read foods, like ghee, large packets of chanachur, peas for making
ghughni and a mix of Darjeeling and Assam tea) and then quietly count the days
until the day of our departure comes. We give our pets to the vet for the time
being and happily sit on the plane for the year long awaited journey towards
our home. All the way I think about various ways I can enjoy my holiday. I
dream of devouring all kinds of street foods that my husband literally refers
as unhygienic and nasty, I plan to watch my mom cooking each and every meal and
learn her secrets, eating her wonderful peas kachori in the breakfast, engaging
in all kinds of heated gossip with my cousins to catch up

with whatever is
happening in the surroundings when I am not there, accompanying my sister to
Shantiniketan for her drawing, catching up with school friends, walking around
the streets of Kolkata to have a heavy dose of nostalgia, shopping in Hatibagan
and many more. Meanwhile the airhostesses run their errands around us wearing 6 inch high
heels, bright red lipstick and a perfect hair (sigh..sigh...sigh...) and serve
us bland foods. While eating those foods I keep reminding myself
that all these will be over in a few more hours and I plan to eat a spicy
phuchka on our way home from airport. We reach home after 24 hours which includes an
eight hour long stay in the Dubai airport before catching our flight to Kolkata,
and since we are not V.I.P or Business class ticket holders we literally loll
about the airport with our hand luggage looking for literally any place or simply
a piece of floor to sit and then doze off with our tilted head, and then in the
end wake up with a sore neck. And by that time with a few blocks of energy left in our body, we can only think of a cozy corner
with a warm blanket and a nice long un-interrupted sleep for another day.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Semifreddo, which in Italian means semi-frozen is a
creamy and smooth semi-frozen dessert. If you don’t have an ice cream machine,
then semifreddo is your only way of having smooth frozen desserts right in your
home. And after that you will only want to make semifreddo, because its super
creamy, velvety smooth and completely melt in the mouth.

Monday, February 20, 2017

During the season of
monsoon the fishermen catch fishes full of eggs from
the ponds, marshes and river. These fishes are then sorted and sold to wholesalers.
From them they are distributed among individuals who has a particular place
in the section of fish in the market. The fishes are cut and they separate out
the eggs. You only get eggs if you are buying the whole fish, or otherwise the
eggs will be sold at the market price. The eggs of Hilsa hold a high value whereas
the eggs of other fishes are sold at a somewhat agreeable price.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

These are the last few
days of winter to enjoy all the nice juicy, crunchy and colourful veggies in their full glory. Although you can get frozen vegetables all
throughout the year, it’s hard to get that prefect taste and crunch from them.

Friday, February 17, 2017

We came back from India
after a month...and since then feeling badly jet lagged. The house was a mess
but thanks to my maid it has been restored to its previous fashion. I am
feeling sleepy almost half the day...and when I am awake, I am feeding myself
the outstanding “Mihidana” (fried in pure desi ghee) that my sister-in-law got
for us from Burdwan and some of those “Malpua” that my Mami made the day before
we left India. Our luggage was surprisingly within the limit and I managed to
get some “salpatar plate” and some clay glasses and a set of “bhar” (small clay
pots for serving tea at the street side stalls) with a tray as well as a bunch
of really fragrant leaves of “Gandhoraj Lebu”. All these were accompanied by
our yearly supply of ghee, bori (Bengali sundried dumplings), aamsotto (mango
leather), Gobindobhog rice and yellow peas for making ghughni.

There was a handcraft fair
in Burdwan. My husband bought a hand from the fair for scratching his back and
I got some bamboo baskets. We managed to attend the wedding of a cousin of my
husband and in between running the errands between Kolkata and Chandannagar and
Hooghly...the month started becoming weeks and then days. Our time was short
and we had plenty of things already in our hands, yet...these are the days that
will keep me running for another year and I am looking forward to have the same
in the next year as well.